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PREPARATION
You’ll need three or four large sheets of paper and marker pens. Make four nine-piece jigsaws (there’s a template on the links section of the website) Write a Scripture reference on eight of the pieces: Micah 5:2, Genesis 49:10, Genesis 12:3, 2 Samuel 7:12-13, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:1-2, Isaiah 53:12, Isaiah 53:3. Remove the remaining piece of each jigsaw.
THE CRUNCH MOMENT
15 mins
Divide the young people into small groups. Give each a large sheet of paper, a marker pen, and a well-known story (eg Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, Three Little Pigs). Ask them to draw the story as a graph: shooting upwards when good things happen, downwards when things go badly and staying in the middle when it’s neither good nor bad. Ask them also to decide where the ‘crunch moment’ of the story is: the most important point, around which everything else revolves.
Compare results and say: Most stories have a ‘crunch moment’ which changes everything (eg when the three bears return to their house or Little Red Riding Hood suddenly realises it isn’t Granny in bed after all). The big story is no different. The point which it has all been leading up to – the key to the whole thing – is the next part we have to look at.
THE MISSING PIECE
5 mins
Give each small group a set of eight jigsaw pieces and see who can complete the puzzle quickest. It can’t be completed properly because there’s a vital piece missing.
Say: Each of these pieces contains an Old Testament prophecy; the prophets had signalled the next stage in the big story centuries before, and each of their messages added a piece to the jigsaw, but the last piece wasn’t in place until Jesus arrived.
Get them to look up some of the references on the jigsaw pieces, and work out together how this prediction points towards Jesus. If you have time, you could stun them with the mathematical calculations of Peter Stoner – see the links section of the website for more details – but it’s not essential. Emphasise that Jesus was the crunch moment of the big story! When he died and rose again, our victory over our ancient enemies, sin and death was suddenly complete.
KEY POINT
Everything in the big story before Jesus is pointing forward to his death and resurrection. Everything afterwards is altered completely by what he achieved.
OUT INTO THE WORLD
10 mins
The good news about Jesus had to travel. If nobody ever heard about it, nothing much would change! So before his death Jesus put together a group of followers whom he said would be ‘witnesses’ to him. When he rose again, he met with them and empowered them to go out and tell the world about him.
Put two members of each small group in another room. Each pair should have a mobile phone. Take another member of each group (also with a mobile phone) as far away from the meeting place as you can, then give these people a cryptic message in a simple code. (E.g. JSUSE SI HTE GIB CREEST FO HET GBI ROYTS – which reshuffled becomes ‘Jesus is the big secret of the big story’, but devise a different one for each small group.)
The person who is given the message must ring or text the two team members and give them the wording exactly as it is. They must unscramble it and ring the rest of their small group, waiting back in the meeting room. The first team to announce their unscrambled message correctly wins.
Award prizes and say: Everything depends on the way the message is correctly transmitted! If the messengers aren’t doing their job, the team loses, because the message never gets through. The book of Acts tells us how the message went all over the Roman Empire, and ultimately to Rome itself – the capital of the world. The New Testament letters show how churches sprung up everywhere, and the spread of the gospel became the biggest , most unexpected success story in history. Today we’ve got the same job: to spell out the message, clearly and plainly, to our generation wherever we can.
KEY POINT
Jesus committed the vital job of communication to a bunch of humans who had let him down badly when he died. But with the power of the Holy Spirit compelling them, the disciples took the message everywhere. We continue their job today.
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
10 mins
Say: The Bible doesn’t end there. It points forward to a big story ending which has yet to come. Where are we heading? Off to heaven to sit on a cloud? Well, not really. Read together Revelation 21:1-7 and discuss these questions in groups:
• ‘We don’t go to heaven, heaven comes to us.’ How does this happen in verses 2-3? Is this different from the typical view of heaven that most people have?
• So it’s life on Earth – but not as we know it. What will be the biggest differences and changes (verses 3-4)? What will this mean for us?
• Who do you think is speaking in verses 5-7? (Hint: check out Revelation 1:8.) So what are the chances of this promise coming true?
Say: The big story starts in a garden with hardly anybody around. It ends in a city, with more people than anybody can number, all living joyfully in the direct presence of God. What God has been working for throughout history is complete and fulfilled. Everything in the story has reached its ultimate conclusion.
WRAP UP
10 mins
Retrace the whole story as fully as you can, to fix it one final time in people’s minds and memories. Then pray together, thanking God that although it’s not the end yet, we know how the story finishes and we’re hastening towards the final page. Ask him to help us live as people of the future, and tell everybody we can about the big story as we get ready for the final climax.
